the international peace envoy refined his push for a truce in syria with a new diplomatic burst seeking to end a conflict that's destroying the war weary country. vassal of the blacklist the human rights right between the u.s. and russia results in sanctions and in the dark band evoking sensitive cold war memories. around rolls out the big guns for new exercises in the vital oil route in the strait of hormuz saying it wants to show it can defend itself while pressure piles up over its nuclear program. plus the pricey paris christmas lights why are the crowds but for millions of french in poverty there are dark days

ahead. hello good to have you company watching r.t. live from moscow with me andrey farmer. now looking to rejuvenate the un's peace plan for syria international envoy lakhdar brahimi is visiting moscow after american talks in the middle east the push for a truce comes as the war reaches fever pitch with terrorist attacks and street battles taking a heavy toll on the syrian people are going off as the story. brahe me is coming to moscow after a meeting with president assad earlier this week very little detail has been given out about the outcome of the meeting but brahimi i'm sorry said that he had a positive feeling that something good was happening the speculation that they were

discussing a peaceful transition of power involving the creation of a transitional government which could include all sides of the car flipped in accordance with the agreement reached by all the nations last summer in geneva russia's foreign minister also earlier this week met with a senior delegation of diplomats from syria behind closed doors but it's most likely they discussed the same you and backed peace plan so now the foreign minister and international envoy on syria will definitely have things to talk about but it's very unclear if the syrian opposition will agree to take part in forming any transitional government with president assad since some of its most radical groups have been calling strictly for him to step down and for all the state institutions to be dissolved one of the leaders of the syrian opposition has rejected an imitation to come to moscow saying that no negotiations with our side

are possible even with russia mediating foreign minister and the international envoy on syria are set to meet later on saturday in the moscow while the violence continues to escalate in syria with more terrorist attacks in the rebels are targeting also military airstrips while the government forces have been responding with more shelling meanwhile sectarian cracks in iraq are leading to a surge in violence across the country the scenes he used to help pass and i say they are second class citizens in their own nation and they want something done about it as we report shortly. and egypt's top prosecutor looks to charge opposition leaders with calls to overthrow the islamist back president the details in a few minutes. iran has entered a new phase in its naval war games in the strait of hormuz which is a vital oil shipping route the exercise involves warships submarines and jet

fighters and aims to show taran can maintain security in the region around earlier said it could block the strait effectively shutting off a fifth of world oil trade if it's attacked iran is feeling the pressure from the west as the u.s. and its allies pile on the sanctions over its nuclear program so royal poor alric is a writer and global diplomacy specialist she says iran only wants to show it is capable of protecting its borders for the past thirty two years or war where specifically united states is the waves of corporate war against iran so you know why it has been preparing itself and demonstrating is this to defend itself i don't believe that iran would ever take action if we see more naval military exercises right now it's because the media is focusing on iran whereas inside. earlier this month there was operation lucky mariner with twenty seven countries participating.

although a lot of them were observer states and they were all the way in the persian gulf in iran as territory and the media was silent on this but when you run demonstrates its readiness to defend its sovereignty and its national interests then there is the media focus on iran. now new year resolutions are known for being ambitious and short lived so should we just give ourselves a break. same as always for the way. forward to the real use the. more promises we will all struggle to keep join us in new york the city that really knows how to handle new gear. moscow's ban on the adoption of russian children by u.s. citizens will come into effect on new year's day the bill containing the measure was signed into law by president putin on friday the legislation also includes travel and financial sanctions for certain americans as well as further

restrictions for noncommercial organizations working inside russia the law is in retaliation for washington's blacklist of russian officials which it links to the death of lawyer surrogate magnitsky in two thousand and nine russian studies and history professor stephen f. cohen from new york and princeton university's says he's never held any illusions about the two countries relations. there's an old russian saying we're friends are also deeds a lot of people in moscow and in washington when they passed the magnitsky act and now the ban on adoption in moscow may have thought they were just talking showing off playing grandstanding politically as we say in america but these words have consequences they had that they fuel all this new cold war atmosphere which is enveloping the relationship between our two countries it's going to affect american relations with russia regarding afghanistan regarding missile defense regarding

syria regarding iran these are very serious matters but bamma has continued the policy toward moscow begun by president clinton a democrat and continued by president bush a republican that policy is investing nato toward russia's borders building missile defense on russia's borders interfering in russia's internal politics most recently the street demonstrations this is the same policy that began twenty years ago with the soviet union the fundamental american policy toward russia has not changed so it's ridiculous to call obama soft on moscow i mean just because two leaders get together as they always do and say we are friends it doesn't mean anything in reality yours is that the partnership we need between washington and moscow to make the world safer for all of us has not existed since the soviet union ended and we may be farther from it today today as

a result partially of this orphanage then we have been in twenty years. well we've got plenty more coming up including the public versus politicians later this hour and it is yes series features the events which got russians more fired up for that government. something. lies beneath. thousands of meters of ice broke. the law. that is a for many. but dangerous even to those who keep it to distance.

good luck. with. anything. to teach me. about humans. this is why you should. welcome back for most people this week festivities have time for family decoration on the once a year. spare a thought for those who have little to cheer such as the eleven million french people living in poverty. reports from the capital and whether the bright lights are leaving too many citizens in the uk it is. one of the most beautiful cities in the world but the french live. this

city. as one of the most important events. this year in central paris alone the famous chancellor installing christmas lights wasn't cheap at christmas elimination because they're on a one million euros it shop on the shelves that he is contributing to the christmas lighting depending on the number of trees they have in front of their of their shop eighty percent money money from the shops of the shows an easy. twenty percent this money city hall but the budget has gone up by a third across the whole country in a year where the average person has struggled financially the authorities say they're splashing out the extra millions to help people forget how little they have . but there is crisis there is financial difficulty people have less money to

spend so we have to create a festive atmosphere to give them back the will to buy and celebrate it's clear that you're in crises in developed countries people tend to economize and spend less money so it's important to avoid this negative spiral of economy and courage people to go ahead and spend a bit. but what if you have nothing to spend. as little about how her city looks or what the biggest christmas sale here are for her the whole day is all about bringing her terminally ill daughter to numerous charity events over the festive period. my daughter has leave her cancer her medication is being paid by social security but i have to pay the doctor out of my own pocket we are poor and i cannot afford that it's unacceptable they spend so much money on beauty well we are neglected. and there were hundreds like france was that this charity event alone a recent poll concerning poverty in france produced some shocking figures.

we wanted to ask the french if they felt poor or felt they were heading that way only eleven percent of the french consider themselves being below the poverty line but thirty seven percent say they feel they are becoming poor the french feel that their country is slipping into decadence and social stratification is taking place . christmas is many things to many people some admire the atmosphere or make you healthy you wrote for others it's about finding a means of survival regardless of the financial state all hold that next year will be better than the previous and who knows maybe those in peril now may join those enjoying the spectacular eliminations come next christmas. ski reporting from paris. but max kaiser is a man who gets no one off the hook for cultivating the gap between rich and poor here's what's coming up at seven thirty am g.m.t. . the stranger to exploitation of colonisation they've been ignored and they have

developed some interesting products in the telecommunications. market is leapfrog over the traditional fan market but again want to have credible mass is going to be colonized by the foreigners as usual asia the asian crisis financial. nineteen ninety eight there was a crisis cooked up on austria the city of london export of to blow up that economy now they're buying dollars to protect themselves against a continuum or rotting by the opium dealing the british people who don't arrive with opium to sell. the revenues products for the same effect get a job securities. egypt's main opposition leaders are under investigation for allegedly inciting their supporters to overthrow president morsi among those facing a probe or nobel peace prize laureate mohamed el baradei and the former arab league

chief a murder investigation was announced shortly after the islamics drafted a new constitution cementing elements of sharia law was officially approved in a referendum neil clark a world affairs contributor for britain's guardian newspaper explained why he thinks morsi is going after the opposition i. think he wants to sort of deflect attention from the economy because the underlying problem plate the biggest we're facing is the economic crisis one of four egyptians are without jobs poverty is on the right and the subsidies on fuel which means that the prices of gas and electricity are going to rocket and so this is a kind of sort of smokescreen and he was very keen to get the opposition tied up in the sort of legal challenges to sort of stop them from focusing on opposing him on the issues where he's very weak and i think also he'd be worried that you know a sizable minority thirty six over thirty six percent of people voted against the constitution and the fact seems to be that he is on the wane. and i think that

obviously you know i think we can see more protests in the new year. forget anonymity there is one place you need id to use the internet and that's china where new rules insist every web user must use their real name online we report at r.t. dot com plus a survey that says christmas for christians is no longer about the birth of jesus they're not too struck on santa. it's. a growing number of wealthy britons plan to wave goodbye to the u.k. over the next two years a move their lives and money elsewhere more than a fifth of the country's millionaires are considering emigrating according to

a recent survey by lloyds t.s.b. international bank artie's polly boyko explains what exactly is making the rich pak there that much. blame the dismal whereas that's reportedly the overwhelming reason for why one in five british million as a considering upping sticks and leaving the country now those reasons are followed closely by the high rate of crime in the u.k. and antisocial behavior and then another reason why they might want to leave is the high cost of living here in the u.k. and only in fourth place to my why they might might want to leave is the high rate of personal taxation now where are they going well top of the list of destinations is france it's nearby and it's warmer weather and same goes for spain which is the other place where they're all thinking of flocking to followed by the usa now we didn't manage to track down any millionaires but we hit the streets of london to talk to the ordinary londoners to ask whether they were considering upping sticks

and leaving as well and it looks like most of them agree with the millionaires so let's take a listen to what they told us. second the dark vision. if. you just. consider leaving the u.k. . what reason. climate would you consider leaving the u.k. and leaving somewhere else i'm going to do really what are the reasons my wife. my children but also the expense here looks like the middle class professionals are the ones who are actually packing their bags and leaving a recent report by the home office said that more and more middle class with professionals are actually packing their bags and opting to continue their careers elsewhere and for them the main reason is the high rate of personal taxation so it's the millionaires are the ones that don't like the rain then is the middle class professionals the senior managers the academics the scientists that are

actually continuing their careers abroad and a lot of business leaders are saying that if the high rate of personal taxation isn't cut it's going to lead to a brain drain for the u.k. in the future so something that's very worrying for politicians to consider here. a period of political challenges and a surge of public opinion that is how russians might possibly describe the growing year today in our series looking at what happened in two thousand and twelve we focus on the boost of political energy in russia. presidential election twenty three cameras up on this roof correspondents throughout moscow and i mean you come across lines throughout the night here is

a great night wasn't the real color was right behind us was me but but so one point when putin came out of so many like crowds way past the doom of the thousands and thousands of people also celebrating his victory one of the main points the unprecedented protests that took place up to that election work and protest rallies that never really feels like we're actually taking part in the event it was during one of the massive protest rallies in moscow square that it really fifty for the first time when i saw the crowd want to see the truck parked right next to ours another station and i realized how soon was people really turned uncontrollable in the matter of a second and things just as easily be chaos really quickly of people trying to get the political point across in the past twelve months. the best way to do that would be a bag on your head and to some right be dancing in a cathedral one thing that was important to get across when we were covering it is

people's political flavors in this country the fact was that what they did was deeply offensive to a huge number of people not something that. when they were looking at the case. when they made a press release about sour interview with president putin the first that he's ever given after he's a stirred inauguration we received dozens and dozens of calls from international media representatives and they were all asking us just one question did he say anything about the case nothing. more challenging it is the point gauging the conversation would be of course not. the big list in my head i want to hear about his thoughts on the ongoing syrian conflict also whether the punishment is a pussy riot punk was indeed with hindsight maybe too heavy and some interesting comments to make about that what he thought about the russian opposition movement one of our big stories of the year the streets are available for protests that is for sure and i think it's good that people conscious about politics not politics is not a big deal among most people here in this country would want to be dealing with change

let can only be good for society and i think the authorities reacted with relatively well. iraq has seen its largest protests in a week of anti-government demonstrations as tens of thousands gathered to demand more rights seeing muslims had controlled iraq until the fall of saddam hussein ten years ago they now accuse the shia origins of refusing to share power and being a puppet of neighboring around the latest protest is seen as the tip of the iceberg in a sectarian conflict with tension leading to some of the worst violence since the iraq war or a g.r.r. who's an iraqi american blogger thinks the us invasion played a big part in sowing the seeds of today's trouble. unfortunately is another example of. u.s. interventions decades after the us invaded the country and destroyed it and promised everyone on the war in iraq that it will build

a functioning democracy what everyone will be happy living in peace and prosperity rock became one of the wards places to live on earth the country is completely destroyed the society has been destroyed infrastructure has been the destroyed five million people have been displaced and million people were killed. there is till this day in two thousand and twelve we still have very fragile political system rocky's view very corrupt very dysfunctional one so unfortunately it's another example of the failure of installing a government system by us or learning to invasions. the world is still none the wiser as to whether america can wrestle a solution to its imminent fiscal cliff which could have far reaching ramifications president obama has charged democratic and republican senate leaders with finding

a compromise to the budget impasse a raft of tax hikes and social spending cuts come into force automatically on new year's day if the two political parties fail to find a way forward obama says he will call a vote in congress to stop the tax rises if they can't work it and. the victim of a gang rape on a bus that triggered violent protests in india has died in the singapore hospital a body is expected to be flown back to india later on saturday the twenty three year old student was beaten and suffered massive internal injuries before being thrown out onto the road to the attack because deep outrage in new delhi with widespread calls for greater measures to protect women. italy's outgoing prime minister says he will lead a coalition of centrist party to after february parliamentary elections omarion monti is not ruling out a return as head of state should the alliance be successful he resigned earlier this month after his government lost its majority amid the country's deepening

recession. now coming up fast that night of fun fireworks festivities a fair few of us will also be making some resolutions for twenty thirteen and already half an ist has been hearing some of the wishful thinking in new york. it's that time of year again when we all make resolutions for the new year so what's your best this week let's talk about the same as always to lose weight lottery looking for two in the mega millions that you're so you're going to win the lottery and you're going to lose weight and neither of these things are going to happen exactly could just be. kinder gentler and more giving how do you do that new york city i live in cincinnati i've been reading about i

want to eat song going to do it this time and why didn't you eat better and twenty twelve no i read a book about fasting fasting for two days a week so that's what i'm going to get that's not going to work here is resolution eat less muffins you know. to take care of myself better eat less muffin no muffins are great because again the gym that's what it usually is what is needed to last through are. you going to make the same one that you break from like you think a lot of people do that yeah i think so that's a piece of art myself joy life that's a good one it's kind of like the anti resolution more like i'm just going to relax a little but. that's probably when you can stick to spend more time with my family is that a doable resolution absolutely and is that going to enhance your two thousand and thirteen absolutely you're not going to get more annoyed with your family well.

of course. not. that i didn't think about it i had to think of that. but why don't you start now because i crave cigarettes a lot you still have them so you're going to smoke up yeah and then once you don't have any more about a carton of cigarettes you're going to smoke your brains out until january first to january first that's it d. usually make them know why not because i know so why does everyone else in the world keep making them. just that ourselves up for a massive disappointment. terrible way to start the new year out of this if you do decide to make a new year's resolution for two thousand and thirteen the bottom line is you're probably not going to keep it so why not just resolve to try to be a better you every day of the year happy new year.

well if your health has taken a hammering this holiday season stay tuned because technology update has some medical breakthroughs that in a few minutes. do we speak your language. or music programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you breaking news a little tonnage of angles kim's stories. for you here. in troy altie spanish find out more visit. tito's colm.

wealthy british style. restaurant. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's culture.